Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Operation Handcuff

"WARNING! This payphone is monitored! Whoever, without reasonable cause, dials "911" from the payphone for the purpose of a false alarm fire or false emergency will be prosecuted and fined!"

"OPERATION HANDCUFF Notice to drug dealers ... All numbers, along with the date and time, dialed from this payphone using coin, credit card, and collect are recorded automatically and subject to subpeona by law enforcement officials."

Please continue reading for more pictures and words

Here is a link to an Operation Handcuff sticker sponsored by the California Payphone Association. The most common colors on Flickr are red,white and blue. This must have been a national operation back when drug dealers had to rely on pay phones and pagers. Logically this program must have been up and running in the mid to late nineties.

Here is an example of one stuck to the side of a pay phone, along with a notice that the phone will not operate between the hours of 8 pm and 6 am. This sticker also states that "this phone blocks cellular and pager numbers between the hours of 9 pm and 6 am."

The only other online information regarding this program is the fact that Godspeed You! Black Emperor put the Operation Handcuff sticker on the CD for its EP Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada. This sticker has more information that the one on Flickr. The entire warning and notice is in capitals on the phone.